Disclaimer: Characters, settings, names from the cartoon television show 'Steven Universe' are creations and property of Rebecca sugar and Cartoon network. Any Non-steven universe characters, settings, names, Gems, Gem powers, beliefs, mythology are my own creation.

Author's Note: After seeing the latest summer of steven episodes, and watching the fight scene of "All Might vs Noumu" dubbed, that was the kick in the ass I needed to finish this story. Also, the words connie says in her battle with bloodstone, is from a poem written by walter de la mare. I only added the last sentence to make it sound as epic as possible.

Story Tags: Steven Universe, Lapis Lazuli, OC's, Connie Maheswaran Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, Bells, Whistles, Citrine, Peridot, Beach City, Gem Powers, Romance, Adventure, Comfort, Destiny.

Music Inspiration: Too many to name.

Chapter 45: Pioneers of The Apocalypse

Thursday

September 8, 2016, 12:00 [Morning]

Crystal Temple, The Beach, Beach City

(Steven's army vs yellow diamond's army round 2)

Steven's army which had half the numbers of yellow diamond's army, had been putting up a good fight against the homeworld invaders. most of the fighting between armies was relegated on the beach shore, but different gangs of opposing sides took their fight out of the beach and into the city. homeworld gems launched blue quartz soldiers into the air, only to jump too and land their plasma spears through their backs, poofing them, and then shattering them. steven's gem warriors would in turn, grab a homeworld gem warrior, and preceded to beat them until they were poofed and were shattered into gem dust.

Businesses were further destroyed and the streets became wrecked from fighting going on in every angle and on every side. the emerald forest and the lighthouse were not spared from the fighting. the giant stone statue of the six fused gems the temple was based on, which commander smoky created, made the earth under everyone's feet rumble with tremors each time it moved. it leaned down to grab homeworld warriors, and then threw them back down on the ground so hard that they shattered immediately, completely bypassing the poofing stage.

The giant earth arms smoky brought to life to aid in this battle, were also doing a fine job, despite scores of them being cut down by the advance and deadly plasma weapons wielded by the homeworld gem warriors. but for each earth arm that was cut, another two grew in its place. the giant living oak tree warriors acted as perfect shields for steven's gem warriors that were seeking a place to hide behind and recuperate before heading out to fight again. with their mighty arms made of coiled branches, they smashed homeworld warriors into the ground.

But like the earth arms, they too were being cut down by the numbers. and unlike the earth arms of smoky's earth method, the oak tree warriors reverted back to normal trees once enough damage was dealt to them.

Sugilite spun around like a tornado, and moved into a crowd of homeworld gem warriors that tried to climb on top of her and bring her down. but they were punched right back from a flurry of spinning outstretched fists. sugilite then came to a stop and manifested her flail weapons and swung it around and brang it down on homeworld gem warriors. clouds of gem warriors poofing filled all of beach city. but as yellow diamond's army began to thin, more pods containing one hundred gem warriors were sent down to earth from the spaceship above. this angered sugilite and caused her eyes to glow fiery red. she swung and fired fists from her flail at the incoming pods, destroying them before they could land.

Lapis who was levitating above the battlefield, saw that steven's army was thinning and so was yellow diamond's. but she saw that the super massive ship above the earth was sending more and more pods containing more gem warriors to reinforce her shrinking army down on earth. Fists which sugilite fired from her flail, looked like small meteors that crashed through the pods and caused them explode. sugilite's attempts to keep more enemy warrior gems from coming down to help their comrades, was admirable and courageous, but it was far from enough.

Using all of her power and control over water, lapis created one hundred 10 mile long cannons that jutted out of the Atlantic ocean. using her mind, lapis pointed the water cannons upwards at the spaceship and fired. the water cannons fired super heavy dense water bullets that pierced through the ship. balls of lights filled the blue sky, lights which were explosions that rocked and shredded the massive spaceship little by little.

Admiral bells and his gem wife citrine did their part to keep the remaining gem warriors loyal to steven alive. the admiral levitated above the city and focused on making invisible barriers for steven's warriors while they fought. the plasma weapons, whether they were blunt, thrust or slash weapons, weren't enough to break the telekinetic barriers bells created. citrine paralyzed the enemy gem warriors by sending electrical currents through the ground, which gave enough time for steven's soldiers to break the enemy.

Connie vs Bloodstone

Fighting down along the southern east coast, punching each other with one mighty blow after another. connie worked behind the scenes while commander smoky took charge of her body and mind. unlike his brother, olivine who was dealing with carlos, bloodstone was able to generate and manipulate psionic energy with an infinite supply of power. that included generating energy constructs, but unlike an aura which all true gems and hybrids had and produced, this energy was very malleable.

Bloodstone flew behind connie, chasing her while shooting blood red psionic energy beams from his eyes that tracked connie wherever she went. commander smoky raised large slabs of stones from below, and levitated them at great speeds to block the deadly energy beams from hitting connie's body. bloodstone constructed boosters around his feet that gave him the needed speed to catch up to connie where he grabbed her by her stone armor and punched her with energy packed punches.

"Aagh!" commander smoky groaned.

The punch caused the surrounding clouds they were in to blast away and dissipate with the wave of the shock wave. bloodstone punched connie all over her stone armored shielded body, breaking and chipping away at the layers.

"Commander, I'm really close, I just need a few more seconds. I don't know how long my body will be able to take it while I'm under it!" connie's voice said loudly to commander smoky.

"Which is exactly why I needed to take control of your body, with my mind now perfectly in synch with this body, I can do what you still cannot my lady." smoky answered connie.

With one last punch, commander bloodstone punched connie's thick layered armor open. but what was revealed to be hiding behind the thick layers of the stone armor connie hid behind of, was more than enough that the enemy commander could barely handle. an unseen punch, one that did not produce shock waves, booming sounds or disturbed the surrounding air, but instead produced a sound akin to a hammer striking down on a piece of metal, sent bloodstone flying back.

Much of his left chest and arm had been destroyed, but was restored back to normal in no time. bloodstone beheld connie, levitating not far from him, whose exposed hands, forearms, neck and face had silver veins replacing her old regular human veins. sparkles of glittering silver billowed out from her shoulders and head, like plumes of smoke from a volcano or fire. regular blood no longer flowed through her veins, instead a combination of silver powered blood and liquid silver flowed through her whole body. only commander smoky knew how much power to release when he attacked and how to manage under this level of stress and pain that would kill connie had she been under control of her own body.

Inside of her mind, connie sat atop the shoulders of the giant ancient commander and worked together as the commander initiated the first of many hyper sonic punches.

"Here we go!" the commander said.

Commander bloodstone encased himself in energy armor as thick as a mountain, but one punch from a super earth powered connie/ smoky caused his energy armor to crack and fracture the more that her punches landed. bloodstone worried what would happen if he could not defeat the child in front of him, would he be known as the commander that fell to the hands of a small earth child or one not worthy of the honor and title of commander.

When his energy armor finally broke after ten punches, bloodstone consumed all of his infinite energy and exchanged blows with connie whose eyes had turned entirely silver. their punches were more than just a blur, it began to heat the air around them that caused storm clouds to form. bloodstone, for as fast as he was punching, was also taking as many punches as he could dish out. connie did not respond to the many punches battering her face, chest and head. slowly commander bloodstone's punches became slower and sluggish, as connie kept up punching at a pace that began to increase.

"I-I...Can't keep up! How is she able to...punch...FASTER THAN MEE!?" commander bloodstone shouted.

"With silver claws, and silver eye; and moveless fish in the water gleam, by silver reeds in a silver stream, fade away with this last punch, by the SILVER MEE!"

With one final punch that was among ten thousand that were fired in this battle, connie landed the killing blow that broke and obliterated commander bloodstone entirely. It was thanks to her quarternary stage, her silver form, that she was able to prevail. the silver veins that had taken over her body began to fade, but were reinvigorated by commander smoky in a struggle to remain in battle as long as possible.

Carlos vs Olivine

With one commander down and only one more to go, the task of dealing with commander olivine was proving to be a fight carlos would remember if he could survive this fight. fighting near the north pole, carlos was encased in his quetzalcoatl form, and fired blasts of super destructive wind energy at olivine who smacked them away using his power to manipulate gravity. much of olivine's armor and cape was ruined and shredded from earlier skirmishes with carlos.

"Here comes another one, child of air!" commander olivine warned.

He raised both his hands above his head, balled them up into fists and brought them both down. carlos felt something terrible coming at him from all sides. he had his guardian coil into a protective ball and tighten itself as much as possible. large invisible fists came crashing down on his guardian, from all angles. even the smallest opportunity for escape was lost when fighting olivine.

Carlos's guardian was beginning to crack under so many barrages that were without end. carlos thought hard about how he could do this, how could he beat an enemy that-

"It's hopeless human! gravity is everywhere in this universe, at all times and ceaseless. It's like a fish trying to fight back against the tide of a river or stream, or a bird trying to escape air currents by flying in a different direction. this was the easiest fight in my entire life!"

"Air exists in the world, even in the ocean. but in space it's non existent, because there is no atmosphere and air molecules to vibrate. but even gravity can't effect sound, at least not by much!" carlos thought to himself.

Under his cracking guardian, carlos pushed past his third form and went straight into his mastered gem form, getting olivine to stop his rambling and getting him to become serious. It was only for a moment, but olivine felt a pain in his chest, he placed his hand over his chest and looked surprised.

"Bloodstone, brot-Aaugh!"

*BAAAMMM*

Olivine felt a devastating blow ripple through his body, getting him to cough and gasp. olivine looked for carlos, but couldn't find him anywhere. olivine felt another rippling blow coming from his legs, this time he looked down at his right leg and saw that it been wrenched off. but damage from the first attack had healed, and his missing right leg was reformed.

"Where are you!? Where the hell are you!" commander olivine shouted so loud it spanned a one mile radius.

"You pride yourself in controlling gravity and manipulating it however you want. but I have become something that is just as constant and present as gravity, at least in this world, can you guess what it is?"

Commander olivine took a defensive pose and waited for carlos to make his move. he felt a pressure growing on his back, in front of his chest, arms, neck and head. they were happening so fast he wasn't sure how to counter this, but did something anyway. he increased the amount of gravity around himself to slow down carlos if he was using an intangibility ability. but when he increased the level of gravity around him, hundred upon hundreds of these points of pressure grew faster that all exploded together, leaving the commander a shredded and torn version of his former self.

Carlos appeared in front of olivine, a bloody mess but still very much alive. olivine who had only half, or rather part of his mouth intact and one eye on his shredded face, looked up at carlos's blood covered face and listened to him speak. carlos pressed his hand down on olivine's head and slowly shredded of what remained of olivine's torn body.

"It was sound, commander olivine. sound is only possible because gravity keeps the earth's atmosphere in place, you increasing the level of gravity only made my final technique all the more deadly; The Horn of Gabriel. I became sound itself and vibrated fast enough to bore a hole through the planet, but instead I bored holes through you. damaging your body on the atomic level, and damaging your gemstone wherever it was hidden at."

"you piece of sh-"

"With your death, all that will remain is your mother, yellow diamond. vanish...commander olivine!"

The commander's body began to vibrate so fast, that a deep humming sound was emitted from him first. what remained of his shredded body began to break away, turning into dust as he cursed carlos and his friends before he was no longer anymore.

From the empty space where olivine was formerly in, he looked up to the sky where steven and yellow diamond were fighting.

Steven vs Yellow Diamond

"Augh! Uurgh! Aack! Gauf!" steven grunted and coughed and choked when yellow diamond landed blow after blow in his gut.

"Ahahahaha! You're just a full of hot air, you little bag of flesh and bones!" yellow diamond laughed and taunted, while landing punch after punch on poor steven who coughed up blood and had blood pouring out of his eyes just from the sheer force of the punches he was being dealt with.

His third form, his guardian mother form was sturdy enough to take two to four blows, but a diamond's physical power was light years ahead of what finn could ever hope to accomplish. but despite all of his best efforts to land damaging blows on the goddess and diamond, yellow diamond, steven was unable to deal enough damage to harm her. all magical attacks was absorbed by her, trying to conquer her mind and control it was to chaotic for him to manipulate.

Yellow diamond grabbed steven by his forearm and spun around fast enough to distort space around the earth and the moon. when she released him, steven was sent flying through the asteroid belt that orbited between mars and Jupiter, where he crashed through hundred of asteroids until he came to a stop on a very large asteroid. his arms and legs were broken and mangled, blood floated out of his nostrils, mouth and eyes. his pupils were the size of pin pricks, his unconscious body twitched and blood flowed out of his open mouth that gasped for air.

Yellow diamond intercepted where he was at and flew over to the asteroid where steven was dying on. she stood over him, crossing her arms behind her back where stared at him before speaking to him.

"You are powerful hybrid, even if you pushed yourself into the next stage of your gem power, it wouldn't even reach twenty five percent of my power. i can no longer sense my sons gem signatures anymore. Humph, It seems your friends have did away with them. my two special are now dead. they were true commanders, unlike that third traitor son of mine. i really would have loved to haven broken him with my own two hands, but the crystal skull took care of that problem. and now, to kill you first and then your friends, and those rebellious gems and lastly your entire planet."

Yellow diamond's eyes glowed as bright as the sun, she prepared to fire energy beams from her eyes that would have been powerful enough to slice through two suns. "yoy tried, but in the end you weren't able to do anything" carry that agony with you into oblivion, hybrid."

"Sorry bitch! but not today!" yellow diamond heard with her ears which acted as conduits for her to hear in space.

Connie/ Smoky, Carlos & Steven vs Yellow Diamond

The asteroid she was sitting on began to rumble and shake wildly. she saw steven sinking into the rock like water disappearing under soil. yellow diamond raised an eyebrow in confusion, turned around and became shocked at what she saw. levitating not far from her, was a golem made of gold with an olive green aura around it. it was a behemoth, roughly the size of a dwarf planet. its hands were covered in green flames as were it's eyes.

Behind it were giant jagged chunks of floating silver and gold. steven appeared inside of the golden golem where connie and carlos were at and attended to his battered body.

"How?! how can you make something as big as this, this shouldn't be possible for a hybrid!" yellow diamond yelled angrily, furious.

"Connie might not have been able to do this on her own, but everything remotely similar and associated with earth, yellow diamond, bows to my commander's essence. even something as a hunk of rock or a metal like silver or gold, which do not have sentience, head my call and come to me whenever I ask for help, and this was the first time I have ever asked for help. luckily for me, this star system had an asteroid belt, enough rock for me to use to make this giant golem and to turn it into near unbreakable gold!"

Commander smoky told yellow diamond who balled up her fists in anger and frustration. yellow diamond was covered in a bright yellow aura that whipped around like a great fire, enough to rival the sun itself. she flew towards the golden golem while smoky locked on to yellow diamond and flew towards her in response. with fists cocked back, the golden golem puppet collided fists with yellow diamond. the resulting connection of fists caused explosions that rocked the asteroid belt.

Yellow diamond used her aura to construct several hundred thousand fists to destroy the golden golem, but smoky mimicked yellow diamond, but took it a step further. He used the silver and golden asteroid sized chunks behind him, and fused his own aura constructs with them to give them a boost in attack and defensive power. the golden golem with it's aura constructs protected by silver and golden collided and crashed violently with yellow diamond's. they fought inside of the asteroid belt, sending hundreds of thousand of shock waves rippling throughout the solar system.

Yellow diamond fired streams of energy beams from her eyes and mouth, that was countered by the golden golem. the golden golem pursued yellow diamond around inside of the asteroid belt, until they were revolving inside of it faster than any comet flying through space. while putting up a valiant fight, smoky asked carlos to wake steven up to so that he could lend them his power.

"I know he's hurting, it was foolish to think one person could take on a diamond, even I could never defeat her without your guys help." smoky told carlos.

Carlos knelt down on one knee next to steven, holding his head up and helping his accelerated healing heal him faster. as steven's arms and legs and the rest of the areas on his body where he sustained wounds, were healing, he spoke to him.

"Steven, I know you can hear me. please my friend we need you to lend us your power to help us kill yellow diamond together. the sooner we deal with this last enemy, the sooner you can meet your mother whose waiting for you. one day you will take your relationship with lapis to the next level. one day you will meet my daughter. the world does not have one shield, it has many, but right now, all four of us are the shield of humanity!"

Inside of steven's mind he saw his friends handing him a large cake celebrating his eighteenth birthday, he then took a look at himself in a mirror and saw how much he had changed. he saw his mother laughing at his jokes and sitting together with greg on a starry night on the beach. he held baby polyphony in his hands and flew towards mars with admiral bells to meet his people. he saw connie becoming mayor of palmyra, then to become a governor and lastly president of the country. but perhaps the last part caused his heart to stir and fight to stay alive. in the same field where the gems fought in the first rebellion, lapis walked down a long aisle with the people of beach city standing beside her.

Steven who waited at the end of this long aisle, took her veil and slowly lifted it up, where he saw the face of his future wife, tears rolling down from her eyes and pursing her lips to meet his own lips.

Finally his wounds were healed and he opened his eyes. carlos helped steven up to his feet and supported him on his shoulders. "carlos...our mastered gem forms, if we combine their energy together and sync it with this golem...that should be enough to finish all of this!"

Pushing into their mastered gem forms together, they both place their hands on one of connie's shoulders and gave her all the power they had. the golden golem was imbued with more power than it needed, and revolved around inside the asteroid belt faster than yellow diamond could keep up.

"I've got something even better boys, and with your help, you will see why there is no commander like my self and no other two like yourselves!" the commander promised.

The golden golem wasn't just revolving inside of the asteroid belt for cover between rocks, commander smoky was collecting asteroids with the aid of his power that binded to his golem. steven and carlos saw exactly what the commander was trying to do. he was collecting enough asteroids to create a super "long arm" of the solar system to act as one truly last punch that would end yellow diamond once and for all.

"Boys! cover the giant earth fist with your auras and make it as thick as possible, this might kill all life in the solar system, or it might kill just one gem, Yellow Diamond!"

Steven and carlos followed the commander's order and covered the super long asteroid fists with their auras. yellow diamond stopped in her flight path and clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. she was furious for letting her guard drop and letting the commander and the hybrids amass enough rock and energy to create that construct of pure destructive power. In response, yellow diamond created her own super arm, one as long as the one smoky had made and filled it with all of her power, she waited for smoky to come around where she would go flying towards it with her own attack.

"You think that mass of rock and energy is enough to take me down!? you're going to be sorely disappointed!"

Smoky and his crew had finally managed to surround the entire asteroid fist with their power. now they were coming back around with a lot of momentum and propelling force. "boys, what should we call this last move?" smoky asked his crew.

"That's simple," steven and carlos said together, "THE SHIELD OF HUMANITY!"

Cocking their fists back as far as they could and storing dangerous levels of potential energy, enough to obliterated one hundred jupiters, yellow diamond and smoky's crew crashed fists.

KEW KEW KEW KEW BATTHHOOOOOOMMMMM!

The fabric of space became violently distorted when the two astronomical sized fists crashed against each other. twenty mini super nova blasts exploded before the big one illuminated the other side of the night side of the earth and the rest of the greater solar system. but the explosion was only the beginning of this struggle.

With yellow diamond's giant aura fists pressing hard against the fist of the combine powers of connie, smoky, carlos and steven, both side were finding it surprisingly challenging to push back against the other. At this point it was a war of attrition.

"IS THIS THE ATTACK YOUR PUTTING YOUR POWER AND FAITH INTO!? HAHAHAHA! THIS IS NOTHING FOR MEE!" Yellow diamond shouted defiantly and cocky.

"Connie, that last form might kill you, but trust me when I tell you if that happens, I will pull you back from the brink! Yellow diamond cannot be allowed to win, if she does, everyone everywhere loses!"

Steven and carlos's combined aura that formed a thick armor over the golem's golden fist was beginning to crack, plumes of steams fired and whistled out from under the cracks that were appearing all over the fist and forearm. inside of her mind, connie knelt down on her knees, placed her hands together in prayer and began to speak.

"Tungsten with an atomic number of 74, like the years a couple will spend together. newlyweds with rings made from tungsten. their love shown by the rings on their fingers. love held together by a ring with the highest melting point. one's love can come in many shapes and colors, like tungsten going from dark grey to almost white. a couples love can shine as bright as tungsten in the sun. even with dark times their love will power through, their love as strong as TUNGSTEN!"

Connie's entire body had turned into metal shavings held together by smoky's power, which floated around an empty and transparent shell of what was once connie's body. but it was what appeared behind the golem that was the real kicker which they desperately needed. seven super concentric rows of rings made of tungsten, which were big as Saturn and beyond spun around and slowly melded with each other, that formed into a giant armored gauntlet that came down over the crumbling fist of smoky's team. with the tungsten armor in place, five millions boosters formed all around the forearm and fired away together.

FFFFWWWWWWWOOOOOMMMMM!

"I...can't...stop...their...damn attack! nooooo!" yellow diamond told herself, cracking under all of the pressure and force she was fighting back against.

"NOW DIE ALREADY!" Smoky and his team shouted together.

Their attack pushed through yellow diamond's attacks, shredding through it like a knife cutting through butter. yellow diamond had put all of her power into that attack, and had no more for a quick escape. before she knew it, the tungsten covered and gem mastered aura infused golden fist came at her and.

If one had been watching the milky way galaxy from millions of light years away, they would see a white rod light years in length in the outer reaches of the milky way galaxy shooting forward. but the white rod would vanish as soon as It appeared. the solar system was a mess and space was going to need a lot of time to stabilize. but when all the fireworks were done, carlos, steven and smoky saw the floating body of yellow diamond, her diamond punched out of her body and her eyes as black and hollow as an empty well.

"I can sense no energy in her anymore. she's dead, boys. she's gone and this is all finally over. let's head back, my lady is going to need months to recover from pushing into her tungsten form."

"Yeah no kidding, if it hadn't been for that extra push from connie, none of us would be here right now" carlos said, relieved and grateful.

Steven placed a kiss on connie's forehead despite connie not being in control of her own body. "don't worry steven, connie knows, and its ok." smoky told him.

The crew flew back to earth where the giant spaceship yellow diamond and her sons came in, was already leaving. The ship was severely damaged but had enough juice for one last warp jump.

Back on Earth

Landing back on good solid ground, carlos who carried connie in his arms walked along side steven who were bloody, covered in dirt and almost naked from their clothes being so shredded. but they were alive and were now back home. steven saw his father who was walking beside pearl coming over to welcome them back. steven's eyes filled with tears as everything went quiet, all sound had escaped his ears when he saw lapis coming back down to earth to help support pearl. she waved at him, looking battered herself but ok nonetheless.

He saw admiral bells carrying his baby in his arms, citrine waving at him and carlos. garnet and amethyst who had unfused sometime ago, ran over to the victorious team to hug them and embrace them. Finally everything could go back to normal, the earth would need a lot of time to heal and people would need even longer to grieve all the dead and missing, but in time, everything will return to normal.

But...forming just behind greg, was a yellow portal. he didn't notice it, and neither did everyone else until it was too late. carlos screamed something at steven, who tried to run and save his dad, but tripped from his muscles being extremely overworked. he fell on the sand and saw yellow diamond's corpse step out of it with a severe limp. her eyes were still the same black empty hollow sockets that they saw up in space, and her gem was completely gone, but she was still moving!

With his last breath, steven shouted, "DAD BEHIND YOU!"

"Too...Late...Hybrid"yellow diamond said, her voice hollow and dead.

Greg turned around and saw her, then he felt something hot and hard punch through his chest. pearl and lapis who were beside him, watched in horror as greg fell and blood rained down on the sand. steven shouted in agony till his voice left him. carlos placed connie's battered body on the sand and ran towards yellow diamond. yellow diamond's corpse just had to hold her hands out at everyone to knock them down, except for carlos who still had a sliver of power left to spare.

"Carlos don't!" pearl shouted at him, in pain.

Yellow diamond blitzed over to carlos where she punched him in the stomach, getting him to cough out blood out his mouth. she grabbed him by his wrist when he went limp and limped over to steven where she punched him on his back, breaking some ribs and fracturing his spine. she too grabbed steven and slowly levitated back up into space.

When all hope was lost, someone unexpected had made a comeback. stepping out of a fiery portal was Soren spessartite, who stepped out into the beach and saw everyone he knew sprawled out on the beach, but his eyes widened when he saw a dying greg, a hole was there where his heart should have been. he looked up towards the sky and saw yellow diamond now levitating in mid earth orbit.

"You two...i...hate you...two. Now...it's my...turn." the corpse of yellow diamond told steven and carlos.

"Steven! This is me Soren! Your father is dying and your friends are knocked out. what do you want me to do, save him or save you?! I need an answer now!" he told steven by way of telepathy.

"We're not coming back soren...me or carlos. Please...save my dad, my mom...she can't lose us both. Please soren...thank you...my friend."

Yellow diamond opened a yellow portal and held both carlos and steven up, "you two are going where no one will ever find you" yellow diamond punched carlos inside of the portal and kicked steven inside. the portal closed but that was not the end.

One million, five millions and lastly ten millions fire bolts of black burning fire and white fire were fired at yellow diamond by the last guardian of earth, soren. her body which had been hollowed out from her power that had been extinguished, slowly cracked some more until the last bolt shattered her severely weakened body. her pieces floated up into space, never to reform ever again.

Soren tried to sense steven and carlos, but he could sense neither of them in the entire solar system or surrounding star systems in the milky way galaxy. he hurried over to greg and knelt beside him, he placed his hands over his twitching body and changed his whole body into pure fire. he filled the whole inside of greg's chest, replacing his heart with his own gemstone. greg's body became encased in a very large orange-red spessartite gemstone.

Somewhere

Flowing through space and time, carlos regained consciousness before steven. He thought quick and encased them in an olive green bubble and filled with a limited supply of air that could last for some months. tears filled his eyes as he began to sing, albeit quietly and softly to himself.

"The voice of my guitar wants to sing it's joy to my mexican homeland when the morning wakes up. i sing to its volcanoes, it's meadows and flowers which are like talismans of the love amongst my loves. my beautiful and beloved mexico and pearl, should I die far from you, let them say that I'm asleep and to bring me back to you...please"

Inside of steven's mind, the comforting image of his mother and father waiting for him on a bench on the boardwalk presented itself to him. they had with them ice cream cones for themselves and a third one for him. steven smiled in real time and let tears roll down his cheeks. he joined his parents and peacefully ate ice cream with them. They spent the day on amusement rides, taking photos, playing pranks on their friends and ending the day with steven sleeping on the laps of his mother.

"If I could begin to be, half of what you think of me, I could do about anything, I could even learn how to love. When I see the way you act, wondering when I'm coming back, I could do about anything, I could even learn how to love like you.

I always thought, I might be bad. Now I'm sure that it's true, cause I think you're so good, and I'm nothing like you.

Look at you go, I just adore you, I wish that I knew what makes you think I'm so special."

Next and Last Chapter: "Gone but not Forgotten"